Mr. Moses Kofi Davor, Volta Regional Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), has said the operations of the Metro Mass Transport in the region has thrown most commercial drivers out of business.
He said "The Metro Mass Transport, which is supposed to operate an inter-city transport service is now running across the length and breadth of the region thereby taking over the operations of the GPRTU."
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Ho on Monday, Mr. Davor said most drivers were disillusioned about the development.
He said four buses belonging to the Metro Mass Transport were now plying the Ho-Accra and Ho-Aflao roads making it difficult for the GPRTU vehicles to get passengers on those routes adding "some of our drivers spend as much as four days to a week before getting passengers on these routes."
Mr Davor said life was now becoming unbearable for most commercial drivers in the region and that vehicle owners were also finding it difficult to repay loans they had taken to purchase their vehicles.
He said they have petitioned the government through the Minister of Transport on the issue but there was no response.
Mr Davor said if the Metro Mass Transport buses did not revert to their original operations "our business will totally collapse."
He appealed to the Internal Revenue Service to revert to collecting Income Tax from commercial drivers on daily basis instead of quarterly.
Mr Davour explained that most of the drivers now worked only a few days in a month making it difficult for them to pat the high quarterly tax. When asked if they could also not reduce fares because the fares of Metro Mass Transport were lower than theirs, Mr. Davor said "any reduction in fares will totally collapse our business because cost of fuel and spare parts are high coupled with the high taxes and import duties making the cost of running transport business high and moreover the Metro Mass Transport do not pay any tax."
